Private Universe

Jack and the Girls

Jack ate lunch with the others and managed to chat pleasantly with everyone except Miss Brampton. Lady Charlotte had a keen interest in the politics of the day which she couldn't easily satisfy with Eleonora - too little knowledge of English politics - or Miss Brampton - too unlikely to disagree with an employer. Jack, forthright in his opinions, made for more lively conversation at table.

He made no pretence to knowledge he didn't have and both asked intelligent questions and listened attentively to their answers. They agreed to disagree on the Irish question, but only to the extent that he thought the Irish would attain independence, whilst she thought the government would never allow it. Both agreed, to Bridie’s obvious surprise, that the British should be out of Irish affairs.

‘Grandmother’s side were from Maghera, Bridie. Did I never tell you before? Most of them think William wasn’t Orange enough, but half will swear the only thing Wolf Tone ever did wrong was lose. Never believe it’s purely Catholic against Protestant. And never believe the British Empire will let go of anything it’s ever conquered. The last time they did was when the French took back Calais. What they did with the Boers they’ll happily do again with the Irish. It’s too big and powerful an enemy to take on. ‘

The suffragette movement caused a greater split, with Jack for and Lady Charlotte against, to everyone’s surprise.

‘Oh, no, I’ve no disagreement with the idea of votes for women. God knows we can make a mess of things every bit as well as the idiots we have running things now and might easily sort the nation out better. I know Emmeline, though, and can’t stand the woman. She’s an extremist because she likes being one and she’s as much a supporter of this damn fool war as the worst Tory sabre-rattler.’

Jack argued that the number of women working in munitions factories would make it hard for a government to deny them the vote in the future, a point Charlotte, who’d lost several maids to them, found hard to reject.

‘I strongly suspect, though, that they’ll all be back in the kitchen come the end of this madness. Their menfolk will want their jobs back, their dinners on the table and their slippers warmed when they get home from their labours.   Office workers, Jack. That’s the route for a young girl wanting independence in this modern world. Get an education and become secretaries. It’s not work any man will try to steal from them.’

Jack noticed Abigail, serving at table, thinking about the idea and wondered why she was still here.

‘What?’ He grinned at Charlotte.  ‘Announce to the world you won’t be dictated to and then start a course in shorthand?’ Even Eleonora, who’d listened carefully, but said nothing, laughed.

‘Are you telling me you’d happily take orders from a woman, Jack?’ asked Charlotte, not prepared to believe a teenage boy could answer yes with any honesty.

‘I don’t happily take orders from anyone, Lady Charlotte, but I’ve been talked into things by aunts that were the right things for me to be talked into. Meanwhile, I see generals and politicians, males all, determined to waste my generation by running them into machine gun fire. Why should I believe what the generals tell me instead of the evidence of my own eyes? Just because they're men? And why would I refuse to listen to a woman telling me what I think is the truth? Just because she's a woman? That doesn't make sense.’

‘You don't believe in this war?’ asked Eleonora.

‘I’m not sure this war needs to be fought at all, but I’m sure it needn’t be fought like this. A Chinese general, Sun Tsu, wrote a book called the Art of War. He argued that an army should be like water. Water…’ And like that, the idea was gone. He searched for it in his mind, but it wouldn’t come back to him. Something about water and flowing. Had he read that book, or just been told about it? He couldn’t remember and felt frustration growing. Don’t look at it straight, came the voice inside his head. It’s like night vision, you see things better from the corner of your eye and you’ll see this better from the corner of your mind. And breathe, or you’ll get a headache.